Making A Splash

June 6, 1999|By SALLY DENEEN Special to the Sun-Sentinel

It seems a plain old public pool just won't do any more. We fun seekers want more -- to careen down slides that make our stomachs queasy, to tip make-believe palm trees whose coconuts dump water onto unwitting bystanders.

And we're getting them. An 8-foot-wide lazy river and two new water slides are expected to open at South County Regional Park west of Boca Raton sometime after August. Coral Springs plans to add a 50-foot water flume slide to its Cypress Park pool next year.

For now, the best splishin' and splashin' comes in the form of six of the region's most popular water parks, each with a unique formula of turning those hot days of summer into cool, wet fun.

Pretty pick

It's a rustic scene: Set on a rocky hill with palms and oaks overlooking a beachfront lake, the three slides at Larry & Penny Thompson Park are easy on the eyes. Walk up a wood platform to get to Miami's only county-run slides, then swoooosh -- you'll take some turns and dips before plunging into the cool lake, whose clear, well-fed water is a refreshing 72 to 75 degrees. The two slides at the hilltop are most popular. One is a little longer than the other, yet the shorter slide features more turns. A third, smaller slide found below is suited for younger kids. Downside: You must be at least 42 inches tall to ride any slide here, so tykes are out of luck.

HOURS: Open weekends only from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until June 21. Then, open daily through Halloween.

PRICE: $2 per child, $3 adults.

INSIDE TIP: Wednesday seems to be the slowest day at the popular slide, so show up then to avoid the hectic weekend crowds.

Kids at South Florida's largest water park, The Rapids in West Palm Beach, tend to start the day by going down the mildest slides. Then they graduate to scarier slides as their nerves are steeled until landing on their favorite -- which, for Kyle Megrath, is a new miniature speed slide. "He keeps going down it," says Kyle's dad, Bryan, operations manager at The Rapids. "I said to my boss, `I think that's going to be a hit.'"

Five new slides are up and running this season, making a total of 13 slides (if you count baby pools) at the commercial park -- home to such niceties as three cascading waterfalls, two shipwrecks with water-shooting cannons, a quarter-mile action river, and more than 1.5 million gallons of water. Riders twist and turn as they are swept through 600 feet of darkness in two new enclosed serpentine flumes called Body Blasters. They're smaller versions of a year-old crowd favorite: The Tubin' Tornadoes, whose two enclosed flumes send raft-riders through startling back-to-back 360- and 180-degree turns.

It's the kind of place families head to once or twice a season, and where one couple once took the plunge -- literally. Before the park's opening time, they arranged to say their wedding vows at the top of a slide, then one by one plunged into married life.

HOURS: Now open daily 10 a.m. to dusk.

PRICE: $20.75 plus tax per person; kids age 2 and under are free. Sunset admission, from 4 p.m. to dusk, is $13 plus tax.

INSIDE TIP: Perhaps no one knows the place better than operations manager Bryan Megrath, and his favorite ride attracts the longest waits (sometimes 15 minutes) -- The Tubin' Tornadoes. "Everybody always wants the high thrill," he says. But different slides suit different tastes. His wife, Wendy, prefers Lazy River, a relaxing floating trip on an inner tube past waterfalls and pretty landscaping. It's probably the park's most popular ride, at least among adults.

CONTACT: The Rapids Water Park, 6566 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach; 561-842-8756.

Best pirate theme

Cindy Hund was standing in line at a supermarket when she overheard someone say, "I just took the kids to Castaway Island." The pirate-themed slides, which opened last September at Topeekeegee-Yugnee Park in Hollywood, have been "wildly successful," says Hund, spokesperson for Broward County Parks and Recreation.

Little ones migrate to a shallow 3,000-square-foot lagoon meant just for them and whose soft slide looks like the top of an old galleon. Everyone else heads to the other, 9,000-square-foot pool -- outfitted with a jungle gym, six slides, water guns and palm trees with water-tipping coconuts. (Tip: Turn the coconuts, then water will pour out.) It's whimsical. Animal figures squirt water. Cannons shoot water. And water just seems to be squirting from everywhere. One water slide is actually a double, so two people can glide on separate slides at the same time in an impromptu race.

HOURS: Open daily for two-hour sessions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

PRICE: $3 per person per day for access to the beach and Castaway Island.